MKR's Kelsey and Amanda: 'We didn't realise we were that loud!'

While others teams squabble, the NSW mums turn up the volume in the kitchen.
- byCynthia Wang

14 Feb
2017

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Maybe it was the time Matt made a reference to ear plugs during Albert and Dave's cook, or when judge Manu Feildel would mock-recoil from their laughter, or each moment the production crew asked them to lower their voices, but sisters Kelsey and Amanda have definitely got the hint.

At least Kelsey, 22, a banker and mum of one in southwest Sydney, and her sister Amanda, 36, a mum of three, see the bright side to the attention. "People think we're funny, we're loud and we're very entertaining, which is fantastic," Kelsey says. "We love giving everyone a laugh."

They are also giving Group Two a lot of competition after their Instant Restaurant scored a 95 on Feb. 13, bolstered by their riveting ravioli entrée that earned tens from Feildel and Pete Evans. "I was shocked and thankful," Amanda says. "I am glad to set the bar as high as we did and proud of me and Kelsey as a team."

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As for their boisterous way of communicating, Amanda concedes that every time the sisters saw Manu and Pete, the pair had their fingers in their ears. "I was like, gosh, I've never been shushed so much in my life," Amanda says. "When I and my sisters and my mum get together, that's just what we're like, but it's given me a better understanding from my husband's point of view, and all the partners' point of view."

How so? Amanda says, "They usually exit the room and you don't really find them when we're all together and now I understand why! You never really listen too closely to yourself until someone from outside goes, 'Yeah, you're really loud.'"

Being amongst a household of loud, happy women (Kelsey and Amanda have three other sisters) only prepared them for MKR, Kelsey insists. "Amanda and I don’t take life too seriously at all," she says, "and we think putting smiles on everyone's faces means the world to us."

The downside to appearing on television comes when the sisters serve meals at their own dinner tables. "They actually grade my food now," Amanda says of her husband and kids. "I've yet to reach a ten out of ten!"